When photographing your jewelry, how do you handle the visibility of
a pin back in open areas of a piece? I take my photos with the piece
sitting on non-reflective glass with the background about 1.5"
behind the glass, so sticking the pin back through fabric is usually
not an option.
Do you leave it in the photo? Use Photoshop to airbrush it out?
I’m torn on this one! I think I’m finding that leaving it in becomes
a visual distraction, but may just be second-guessing myself.
When photographing your jewelry, how do you handle the visibility
of a pin back in open areas of a piece?
Personally, I would not leave it in the photo. I saw one just this
week in a magazine,and I thought it looked bad. I would photoshop it
out or photograph the piece before installing the pin back, if for
slides.
Usually I just leave them in unless it is detracting from the
design, for example if the piece is pierced and the pin is going
right across
the back of the design in that case I have darkened the pin (a-la
photoshop) so that it fades into the background just a bit I like to
think that you wouldn’t notice unless I told you
When photographing your jewelry, how do you handle the visibility
of a pin back in open areas of a piece?
One solution is to cut a piece of tubing that blends with the
background and slide it over the pin. This could be silver with
black patina, or a cocktail straw with paint, or something else…
When photographing your jewelry, how do you handle the visibility
of a pin back in open areas of a piece?
I never allow a pin back to show in a photo and when I see images
that do, my eye is always drawn to the pin stem which looks like a
flaw. Even when the pin is positioned so that the stem acts as a prop
to hold the pin up, I find it obtrusive.
I shoot on cardboard, not glass, so I don’t have your problem. I
just poke a hole through the cardboard to accommodate the pin stem.
If I used your method, I would definitely get rid of the pin stem in
a graphics program.
If I have to photograph a pin, and the pin stem shows through the
design, what I do is shoot it on a sheet of gray paper (or other
colors for that matter), but I open the pin outward from the back of
the piece and stick it through the paper. Lighting gets a little
tricky, since shadows are hard to avoid because you’re right down on
the background. And you can always, if it’s a digital image, go into
a photo editing program and move a few pixels around to get rid of
the pin. I’ve also, with pins that have comercial pin assemblies,
simply shot images of the piece before I actually attach the pin.
Pinning it on fabric is usually not a good idea because you get a bit
too much about the fabric that distracts from the piece.
Personally, I would not leave it in the photo. I saw one just this
week in a magazine,and I thought it looked bad. I would photoshop
it out or photograph the piece before installing the pin back, if
for slides.
I think the answer lies in your intent. Did you envision your brooch
existing with the pinstem as part of the design?
I see my pieces as existing in 3 phases.
1 on the body or pinned to a garment
2. in the case, on display, etc.
3. as an image
These 3 phases can certainly vary, but unless the pinstem is a
purposeful element of the design, I take great pains to hide them.
This can be difficult on “open” type brooches. With my work, it also
depends on how significant a piece it is. Lower end or production
pieces I don’t usually photograph. They are made to be worn and not
to be out on display very long.